A “silver bullet,” according to the Urban Dictionary, is “a specific, fail-safe solution to a problem (from the notion that a bullet made of silver is necessary to kill a werewolf).”

As reported in last week’s Park Ridge Journal (“Chromebooks Aim To Inspire Dist. 64 Students,” August 20), Park Ridge-Niles Elementary School District 64’s new director of innovation and instructional technology, Mary Jane Warden, is touting the District’s new Chromebooks as devices that will inspire students toward more creativity, more involvement in learning and critical thinking, and collaborating on projects.

In other words, silver bullets…which we sincerely hope they turn out to be.

But as we pointed out in our 07.10.13 and 07.21.14 posts critical of the way D-64 has foisted this Chromebook initiative on the District’s students and, more importantly, its taxpayers, D-64 has provided no criteria for determining whether this initiative will be a success or a failure. Sadly, that should come as no surprise to anybody keeping a critical eye on D-64 for the past 20 years.

D-64 has consistently failed, or refused, to establish any metrics for measuring the success or failure of any of its many initiatives ostensibly implemented to enhance student learning. Consequently, neither parents nor taxpayers have been able to judge for themselves whether the hundreds of thousands, or millions, of tax dollars expended on any one initiative produced an educational boon or boondoggle.

Exhibit A? Try the “middle school concept” and the new Emerson Middle School building.

Exhibit B? The 2007 “Strong Schools” tax increase referendum campaign.

Metrics that provide meaningful transparency and accountability have long been anathema to both teachers and administrators – indeed, to the whole culture – at D-64. And the dozens of School Board members who have cycled through there over the past 20+ years have failed to make any noticeable dent in that culture, even as the cost to the taxpayers spirals upward and the performance, at least according to comparative rankings based on objective measurements like ISAT scores, continues to stagnate or slide.

Seventeen years ago a new way to group students (grades 6-8 in a “middle school” v. the old grades 7-8 “junior high”) and a new $20 million-plus Emerson school building (to replace the then-newest school building in the District) were supposed to “inspire” students to higher achievement.

Seven years ago the inspiration was supposed to come through a boatload of extra funding that would enable D-64 to reduce class sizes, increase programs, modernize technology and provide “a quality education that is competitive with the best schools in the state, which attracts families to our towns, and ultimately safeguard [sic] our investments in our homes” – according to an FAQ Sheet by the “Citizens for Strong Schools” committee that raised and spent over $25,000 to pass that tax increase referendum.

We’re still waiting for D-64 to provide any objective criteria to demonstrate that the new Emerson and/or that 2007 tax increase gave any significant boost to the quality of a D-64 education and student achievement, or made it among the best primary school educations in Illinois. The current D-64 Board, like the boards that went before it, goes stone deaf anytime such a thing is even mentioned, which is a dereliction of duty by the folks we elect to look out for EVERYBODY’s interests, including the students’ and the taxpayers’.

Frankly, we’d have more respect for the D-64 Board if it came right out and simply admitted it doesn’t want to bother with metrics to determine the success of the Chromebook initiative. Or that it doesn’t think taxpayers are capable of making that kind of determination no matter how much data they are given. Or that it doesn’t care what the taxpayers want or need because the Board members are more concerned with keeping the teachers and administrators happy by reflexively rubber-stamping whatever they want.

If we can’t get transparency and accountability out of them, at least a little honesty would be something. But we’re not holding our breath waiting on honesty, either.

Warden may be new to D-64, but she’s got seasoned Propaganda Minister Bernadette Tramm feeding her proven sound bites like: “We want to create a learning environment to help students become lifetime learners.”

Not surprisingly, there are no metrics for that one, either.

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